{"id":86,"date":"2022-04-06T17:31:40","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T17:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/?p=86"},"modified":"2022-05-19T00:17:44","modified_gmt":"2022-05-19T00:17:44","slug":"beautiful-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/index.php\/2022\/04\/06\/beautiful-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Beautiful Numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>You can\u2019t be a good mathematician, a scientist, if you can\u2019t see wonder everywhere around you.<\/p><cite>Ken Ono<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This is for he with two eyepatches and beautiful numbers.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">0\nIs the sparkle of a frozen lake\nIn that white silence of winter.\n\n1, a single blade of grass\nUpright in bare expanse,\nTowards the blazing golden sun\nWith the shine of petrichor;\n\n2, dancing hands upon the\npiano\nSoothing\n &nbsp; &nbsp; smashing\n &nbsp; &nbsp;  &nbsp;   screaming\u2014\n\nI hoped, at first, I\u2019d\nHave a number for\nEvery little stanza:\nThat\u2019d be very\nMathematical\nI thought.\n\nBut then I thought\nOf 100: Diamond dew on daisy dawn\nAnd realized that\n                                   Well\nI\u2019m not writing 100 stanzas,\nThank you very much.\n\n<em>i<\/em>, by and by, is the silent thump\n     Of an ic\n                   icl\n                   &nbsp; &nbsp; e\nfalling into snow\n\n(Walking through a darkened land\nSilent crashes all around\nImagined terrors creeping \u2018round\nLike burglars in the night.)\n\n<em>e<\/em> is fireflies\nFlickering to life in the\nSetting sun, doubling\nAnd doubling and doubling\nSome more.\n\n1\/9 is the road&nbsp;\nFrom Reno to Las Vegas\nAnd the game of Desert Bus\nRacking up points one by one,\n8 hours by 8 hours.\n\n\u03c0 is a sports game and the\n(Sweltering, stinking, searing)\nPress of sweaty noisy fans,\nOf greasy hot dogs\nAnd doughy corn dogs\nFrom the overpriced concession stand;\nCompany and hype in one classic clump.\n\n<em>\u03c6<\/em> is a golden sea \nFrom end to gleaming end\nOf sunflowers and buttercups and daisies bright.\n\n(<em>i<\/em>\u03c0)^(<em>e<\/em>) is ice cream splatters on concrete\nAnd the look on a little girl\u2019s face\nThe shrill scream in her voice\nAs she stares at her empty cone.\n\nCollatz is pointe shoes\nGraceful (bloody) beautiful (pain) packaged in pink\nWrapped in ribbon and perfect tulle\nAnd giggling tinkling Sugar Spun Sprites.\n\n1000, cresting waves of roiling forest,\n10000, the rush of the wind from a parachute,\n1000000, sea all around from the mast of a ship .    .  \n\nI could go on for\n                                  E t e r n i t y\n(until\n                                  I n f i n i t y)\nAbout these colors and paintings\nThat cannot be seen.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>I recently went to a talk by Ken Ono about &#8220;The Man Who Knew Infinity&#8221; and Ramanujan. During the Q&amp;A, someone with synesthesia described 100 as daisies and dew, and it was so beautiful I felt I had to write about it. Someone with synesthesia asked about it during the Q&amp;A, talking about dew on daisies and 100. I thought that was beautiful, so I wrote this poem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You can\u2019t be a good mathematician, a scientist, if you can\u2019t see wonder everywhere around you. Ken Ono This is for he with two eyepatches <a href=\"https:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/index.php\/2022\/04\/06\/beautiful-numbers\/\" class=\"btn btn-link continue-link\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[50,57,53,52,56,54,58],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133,"href":"https:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions\/133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giftofpresent.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}